I need a poker icon. Somebody find me a good one and I'll be your friend forever.
For the last couple of weeks, I've been one of maybe a thousand players beta-testing PokerRoom.com's new no-limit tournament software.
Well.
It started out with a few "freeroll" tournaments, where you pay your entry fee in "fake" money (I have about $40,000 in my fake money account) and win very small, real money prizes, and/or free entries (referred to as "tickets") into other tournaments with larger cash prizes.
Sometimes it's tough playing against "freerollers" who don't really know how to play no-limit, and are liable to bet all-in at any time, sometimes with a real hand but sometimes out of boredom or just as a goof. So, they could hold just about any two cards. By playing my usual no-limit style -- patiently waiting for good hands, betting them somewhat aggressively against good players, and only betting passively ("slow-playing") against suckers who would bluff with anything -- I managed to win a few bucks here and there as well as a couple of tournament "tickets," including one for this Sunday's Freeroll Final. Some 500 people vying for about $1000 in prize money.
A couple days ago, PokerRoom started their single table, "sit-and-go" tournaments -- my usual style of play, but this time with no-limit (I'm a much stronger limit hold 'em player). I managed to do pretty well, as I built up a tidy little sum of real money, about $80, which I decided to use in the higher stakes, real money beta tournaments.
On Wednesday night, using this "house" money, I tried a $50 real-money "US Daily" tournament, against some excellent no-limit players. The prizes were kind of big -- first place over a thousand dollars, and the top ten got paid -- and the number of entries was under a hundred, so it was worth a shot. After about an hour of playing my usual patient/aggressive strategy, I was just outside the top ten. Unfortunately I played two straight hands very badly. On one hand, I lost a bunch of chips by folding a sure winner (had top two pairs, bet it aggressively, but chickened out when two others raised all-in -- one was semi-bluffing with a flush draw, which didn't hit, and the other won with just the top pair). On the very next hand, I went all-in with a mediocre pair of sevens, losing to an ace-queen when both the A and the Q hit on the flop. Finished 49th out of 95, well out of the money -- and $54 poorer.
Last night -- or, rather, this morning I suppose -- with the last of my real money (I had exactly $1 left after paying the entry fee), I entered a "Midnight Oil" multi-table tournament. It was a $22 real money tourney that started at about 2:00 am and drew 90 entries. The top nine players got cash (about $350 for first, down to about $45 for ninth), with the top six players also getting free entries into the Sunday Grand Prix tournament -- a weekly no-limit tournament with huge cash prizes for the top tournament players (or for those who could afford the $110 entry fee).
Well, against 89 other solid players, and with the "benefit" of just a short nap, I would have been extremely happy with a free Grand Prix ticket and just a few dollars in prize money. Hell, I would have been fine with just the few bucks that ninth place paid.
I never expected to walk away with the top prize.
But, I did. Thanks mostly to two huge hands.
The turning point came about an hour into the tournament, when I was about 30th out of the 50 or so players left. My original $1000 stake was up to about $1600, which was a little below average, and about one-third of what the leaders had. On this hand, I was first to play, holding a queen-jack of clubs, so I started off with a very small raise, $50 I think it was. About five other players called, with the blinds folding. The flop came ace-king-ten -- Bingo! I had the best possible hand at that point, an ace-high straight! I checked, of course, trying not to scare people out of the pot, because with the best possible hand, betting too aggressively will usually win you nothing.
The guy next to me put down a decent bet, about $150, the next one called -- and the next one goes all in! I was a bit bummed, because raising like that after solid bets probably meant that he had the ace-high straight as well, meaning we'd split the pot. I called the all-in bet -- and the guy next to me called too! The other one or two players all folded. So, three of us were all-in with a huge pile of chips, about $6000, up for grabs, and I had a huge lead. (Note that at PokerRoom, when everyone in on the hand is all-in, everyone's cards are not turned up, like they are in live tournaments.)
The next card was another ten -- which sucks, because, whenever there's a pair on the board, there's always a chance that someone has a full house. The last card was a low card -- but it was the third diamond, which could mean a flush for somebody. I thought I was a goner, figuring at least one of the other two had me beat -- but, it turns out, both had ace-king, meaning both had flopped top two pairs and overplayed their hands. I had knocked out two players, and nearly quadrupled my chips to take the lead in the tournament.
The next crucial hand came much later, near the very end. By playing conservatively with my big stack, only playing with the best hands and knocking out players with small stacks, I made it to the final table. I took out a couple more short stacks, and watched as one very strong player, a guy named Matt, took out the rest. So, it came down to us two. Matt seemed like a much better player than me -- he was extremely hard to read at times, as his style varied from very loose to very tight, sometimes depending on who he was playing against in each hand -- and he was also about $20,000 to $25,000 ahead of me. By playing somewhat aggressively (including one or two ridiculous all-in bets that went uncalled), I cut the deficit to around $10,000 ($50k to $40k).
On the pivotal hand, I got dealt a pair of threes, so I made the minimum raise -- when betting first, I tend to do this with a lot of hands, from very strong ones to the occasional bluff, so he'd have no clue what I actually had -- and he called the bet. The flop came J-7-3 -- I made my three of a kind. Because Matt was such a good player, though, I had to play very carefully. I quickly made a very small bet (if I bet big, he folds, and if I check, he may suspect a check-raise and not bet at all, and if I take my time to bet he may suspect I have a monster hand), he made the minimum raise. I took a long time to "think" about his raise (heh heh), then called.
The next card, amazingly, was the fourth three! My gut reaction was to check, so I did, without much hesitation (again, a good player may sense, if you hesitate and check, that you may have a monster hand). Surprisingly, he checked as well. The next card came up a king. Now, with all the cards on the table, I had to take some time. Since I was against a very good player, one who wouldn't be scared away at this point, I decided to make a significant bet -- not so small as to be obvious, but not so large either to make him fold. I think it was about $3000 -- just enough to make him think I was trying to "steal" the pot with a fairly weak hand.
What I thought was that, most likely scenario, if he had a pair of kings or better, or wanted to try a strong-armed bluff against my likely weak hand, he'd raise small (as he'd been doing with the other players when their stacks were still sizeable) to try to get me to call. If this happened, I'd go all-in, expecting him to fold, and I'd take down a big pot and take a small lead. Worst possible scenario, he had a pair of jacks or worse, and I wasn't getting his money anyway, and we'd be about even -- but with a small-but-not-so-small bet as mine, the temptation, I figured, would be too great, and he would try to steal the pot.
Well, my analysis was totally off, because Matt did something I never expected. He wasted absolutely no time -- instead of a little raise, which had been his style, he immediately raised all-in.
With J-7-3-3-K on the board, there was absolutely no possible hand that could beat me. I had the "nuts." So after sitting there, completely stunned by his bet for quite a few seconds, I called.
When I saw his cards, his bet made perfect sense -- turned out he had a pair of kings in his hand, for a full house, kings over threes. A damn find hand, and he played it beautifully -- before the flop, he was "slow-playing" his kings, betting small, calling small, trying to get me to bet, and it worked. Problem was, I was lucky enough to have the only possible hand that could beat him, and I played it perfectly -- for a change (heh heh). Not only was it improbable, statistics-wise (a one-in-990 chance, if my math is right), for me to have the one and only holding that would beat him, it was practically impossible, the way I was playing the hand, for me to have the four of a kind.
In other words, I was fucking lucky -- and fucking brilliant at the same time.
Just a few hands later, his chip stack down to around $5,000 to my $85,000, he went all-in with an ace and a low card, a six I believe, against my pair of nines. When his ace didn't hit, it was over. By four o'clock this morning, I was $342.50 richer, with a free ticket to a big money, high-stakes tournament.
Tournament Results, Midnight Oil GP Qualifier, No-limit Texas Hold'em (Real Money)
Well.
It started out with a few "freeroll" tournaments, where you pay your entry fee in "fake" money (I have about $40,000 in my fake money account) and win very small, real money prizes, and/or free entries (referred to as "tickets") into other tournaments with larger cash prizes.
Sometimes it's tough playing against "freerollers" who don't really know how to play no-limit, and are liable to bet all-in at any time, sometimes with a real hand but sometimes out of boredom or just as a goof. So, they could hold just about any two cards. By playing my usual no-limit style -- patiently waiting for good hands, betting them somewhat aggressively against good players, and only betting passively ("slow-playing") against suckers who would bluff with anything -- I managed to win a few bucks here and there as well as a couple of tournament "tickets," including one for this Sunday's Freeroll Final. Some 500 people vying for about $1000 in prize money.
A couple days ago, PokerRoom started their single table, "sit-and-go" tournaments -- my usual style of play, but this time with no-limit (I'm a much stronger limit hold 'em player). I managed to do pretty well, as I built up a tidy little sum of real money, about $80, which I decided to use in the higher stakes, real money beta tournaments.
On Wednesday night, using this "house" money, I tried a $50 real-money "US Daily" tournament, against some excellent no-limit players. The prizes were kind of big -- first place over a thousand dollars, and the top ten got paid -- and the number of entries was under a hundred, so it was worth a shot. After about an hour of playing my usual patient/aggressive strategy, I was just outside the top ten. Unfortunately I played two straight hands very badly. On one hand, I lost a bunch of chips by folding a sure winner (had top two pairs, bet it aggressively, but chickened out when two others raised all-in -- one was semi-bluffing with a flush draw, which didn't hit, and the other won with just the top pair). On the very next hand, I went all-in with a mediocre pair of sevens, losing to an ace-queen when both the A and the Q hit on the flop. Finished 49th out of 95, well out of the money -- and $54 poorer.
Last night -- or, rather, this morning I suppose -- with the last of my real money (I had exactly $1 left after paying the entry fee), I entered a "Midnight Oil" multi-table tournament. It was a $22 real money tourney that started at about 2:00 am and drew 90 entries. The top nine players got cash (about $350 for first, down to about $45 for ninth), with the top six players also getting free entries into the Sunday Grand Prix tournament -- a weekly no-limit tournament with huge cash prizes for the top tournament players (or for those who could afford the $110 entry fee).
Well, against 89 other solid players, and with the "benefit" of just a short nap, I would have been extremely happy with a free Grand Prix ticket and just a few dollars in prize money. Hell, I would have been fine with just the few bucks that ninth place paid.
I never expected to walk away with the top prize.
But, I did. Thanks mostly to two huge hands.
The turning point came about an hour into the tournament, when I was about 30th out of the 50 or so players left. My original $1000 stake was up to about $1600, which was a little below average, and about one-third of what the leaders had. On this hand, I was first to play, holding a queen-jack of clubs, so I started off with a very small raise, $50 I think it was. About five other players called, with the blinds folding. The flop came ace-king-ten -- Bingo! I had the best possible hand at that point, an ace-high straight! I checked, of course, trying not to scare people out of the pot, because with the best possible hand, betting too aggressively will usually win you nothing.
The guy next to me put down a decent bet, about $150, the next one called -- and the next one goes all in! I was a bit bummed, because raising like that after solid bets probably meant that he had the ace-high straight as well, meaning we'd split the pot. I called the all-in bet -- and the guy next to me called too! The other one or two players all folded. So, three of us were all-in with a huge pile of chips, about $6000, up for grabs, and I had a huge lead. (Note that at PokerRoom, when everyone in on the hand is all-in, everyone's cards are not turned up, like they are in live tournaments.)
The next card was another ten -- which sucks, because, whenever there's a pair on the board, there's always a chance that someone has a full house. The last card was a low card -- but it was the third diamond, which could mean a flush for somebody. I thought I was a goner, figuring at least one of the other two had me beat -- but, it turns out, both had ace-king, meaning both had flopped top two pairs and overplayed their hands. I had knocked out two players, and nearly quadrupled my chips to take the lead in the tournament.
The next crucial hand came much later, near the very end. By playing conservatively with my big stack, only playing with the best hands and knocking out players with small stacks, I made it to the final table. I took out a couple more short stacks, and watched as one very strong player, a guy named Matt, took out the rest. So, it came down to us two. Matt seemed like a much better player than me -- he was extremely hard to read at times, as his style varied from very loose to very tight, sometimes depending on who he was playing against in each hand -- and he was also about $20,000 to $25,000 ahead of me. By playing somewhat aggressively (including one or two ridiculous all-in bets that went uncalled), I cut the deficit to around $10,000 ($50k to $40k).
On the pivotal hand, I got dealt a pair of threes, so I made the minimum raise -- when betting first, I tend to do this with a lot of hands, from very strong ones to the occasional bluff, so he'd have no clue what I actually had -- and he called the bet. The flop came J-7-3 -- I made my three of a kind. Because Matt was such a good player, though, I had to play very carefully. I quickly made a very small bet (if I bet big, he folds, and if I check, he may suspect a check-raise and not bet at all, and if I take my time to bet he may suspect I have a monster hand), he made the minimum raise. I took a long time to "think" about his raise (heh heh), then called.
The next card, amazingly, was the fourth three! My gut reaction was to check, so I did, without much hesitation (again, a good player may sense, if you hesitate and check, that you may have a monster hand). Surprisingly, he checked as well. The next card came up a king. Now, with all the cards on the table, I had to take some time. Since I was against a very good player, one who wouldn't be scared away at this point, I decided to make a significant bet -- not so small as to be obvious, but not so large either to make him fold. I think it was about $3000 -- just enough to make him think I was trying to "steal" the pot with a fairly weak hand.
What I thought was that, most likely scenario, if he had a pair of kings or better, or wanted to try a strong-armed bluff against my likely weak hand, he'd raise small (as he'd been doing with the other players when their stacks were still sizeable) to try to get me to call. If this happened, I'd go all-in, expecting him to fold, and I'd take down a big pot and take a small lead. Worst possible scenario, he had a pair of jacks or worse, and I wasn't getting his money anyway, and we'd be about even -- but with a small-but-not-so-small bet as mine, the temptation, I figured, would be too great, and he would try to steal the pot.
Well, my analysis was totally off, because Matt did something I never expected. He wasted absolutely no time -- instead of a little raise, which had been his style, he immediately raised all-in.
With J-7-3-3-K on the board, there was absolutely no possible hand that could beat me. I had the "nuts." So after sitting there, completely stunned by his bet for quite a few seconds, I called.
When I saw his cards, his bet made perfect sense -- turned out he had a pair of kings in his hand, for a full house, kings over threes. A damn find hand, and he played it beautifully -- before the flop, he was "slow-playing" his kings, betting small, calling small, trying to get me to bet, and it worked. Problem was, I was lucky enough to have the only possible hand that could beat him, and I played it perfectly -- for a change (heh heh). Not only was it improbable, statistics-wise (a one-in-990 chance, if my math is right), for me to have the one and only holding that would beat him, it was practically impossible, the way I was playing the hand, for me to have the four of a kind.
In other words, I was fucking lucky -- and fucking brilliant at the same time.
Just a few hands later, his chip stack down to around $5,000 to my $85,000, he went all-in with an ace and a low card, a six I believe, against my pair of nines. When his ace didn't hit, it was over. By four o'clock this morning, I was $342.50 richer, with a free ticket to a big money, high-stakes tournament.
Tournament Results, Midnight Oil GP Qualifier, No-limit Texas Hold'em (Real Money)